Posts Tagged ‘PC Games’

Yesterday, we revealed the Call of Duty: Ghosts preorder bonus tied to the upcoming Marshal Mathers 2 LP from Eminem but today we have the big reveal. Yesterday, Activision graced us all with the first look at the Call of Duty: Ghosts single player campaign. While it’d be easy to go to the joke that all the meme creating trolls online made about there being such a focus on the dog in the reveal trailer, it’s hard to not take a look at this campaign trailer and not think the whole thing looks pretty bad @$$.

Honestly, if you haven’t seen the trailer yet. I don’t want to spoil it for you before you take a look at it below. It isn’t because there is some critical plot point or a trailer like you’d see for a movie where they reveal the whole thing but because there are some moments that are just damn impressive in it. And yes, you see the dogs too.

Since Call of Duty: Black Ops, Eminem has found himself drawn into the Call of Duty series. As some of you may remember, our own Christ Ulrich got to see Eminem live on stage at the Activision event before E3 just a few years ago to go along with his song that was tied to the game. Three years later, Eminem has a new album coming out coincidentally on the same day that the new Call of Duty: Ghosts is releasing and that left the door for a collaboration between the two media powerhouses. Anyone who preorders Call of Duty:Ghosts from GameStop will receive a code to get Eminem’s The Marshal Mathers LP 2 at a reduced price of $8.99 along with an exclusive track as well.

In August, Eminem revealed Survival at a Call of Duty: Ghosts event and later this month (don’t worry, we will post it) there is going to be a Call of Duty: Ghosts remix trailer featuring the song. “The energy and intensity of ‘Survival’ really matches Call of Duty: Ghosts,” commented Eminem. “I’m excited to continue to be a part of the franchise.”

The little indie game that could just keeps growing. Back in June, Minecraft on PC had crossed the 11 million mark. Now, not even three full months later, the game has sold another seven figures, bringing the revenue generated from just the PC version of Minecraft to $323,400,000. Add in the Minecraft: Pocket Edition’s 10 million units sold and the 8 million that have found their way to XBox 360s across the country and there are a solid 20 million units of Minecraft sold. Not bad for an indie game that is basically a sandbox.

Microsoft has been quoted talking about Minecraft, calling it a “beast” and will be bringing it to the XBox One. Sony will follow suit with Minecraft on the PlayStation 4. Nintendo has said they were big fans of Mojang, Minecraft’s developer, but did not have any announcements as of yet about the series. Back in march, Mojang developer Jens Bergensten talked of a Wii U version of Minecraft as “very unlikely”.

Fifteen years ago I almost started an arduous trek down a very dangerous rabbit hole. I installed Everquest on my PC and luckily most of my friends weren’t playing so I avoided its clutches. I then saw the power of it in full effect with my roommate my Freshman year of college as I had a roommate who literally spent 14 hour binges without leaving his desk.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a gamer and have gone to extremes but even that was a bit too much for me. Since, I have carefully navigated past the waters of various MMOs like City of Heroes, World of Warcraft and DC Universe Online only getting just a taste and not allowing myself to be caught in their web.

Just over a week ago, those who have been stuck in the Evercrack trap found out they will be returning to it with Everquest Next. While Everquest II floundered, players maintained a strong base into Everquest even well into the days of World of Warcraft’s reign. Now, they will be rewarded with a new MMO that redefines the rules for what people expect from a massively multiplayer online RPG. You’ll be able to see a highlight of all the new features in the video below.

On August 27th, the final map pack called Apocalypse will be released for Call of Duty: Black Ops II on XBox Live with later releases coming to PS3 and PC. It will include four new multiplayer maps (Pod, Frost, Takeoff and Dig) and one new Zombies map (Origin) to help round out the Black Ops II experience.

Pod: A failed utopian community from the 70’s has left stacks of dilapidated residential pods nestled into an abandoned cliff side in Taiwan. Its residents long gone, the modernist compound now hosts frenetic combat as players must run atop the pods, as well as navigate their multi-tiered interiors for a strategic edge.

It looks like Quake is still a thing. Who knew? While it has been years since I grabbed a mouse and keyboard and hit a Quake deathmatch, there have been others who haven’t stopped.

Each year, QuakeCon brings together the top players in the Quake world and this time was no exception. For this year’s $9,000 prize in the Quick Live 1v1 QuakeCon 2013 Championship, it was American Quake Champion Shane “Rapha” Hendrixson who would go on to beat Sergey “Evil” Orekhov in a best of five championship series.

As you’ll see in the video below, Rapha was able to take down Evil who forfeited with a massive lead in the fourth and final game of their match. Going into the match though, Rapha was being considered a little bit of the the underdog to the Russian Orekhov and he knew it.

Last year, players got to experience a Walking Dead experience that rivaled the comics with Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Sticking to a traditional point and click adventure style of storytelling rather than an action game or shooter (like AMC’s The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct).

Last week on Tuesday for PSN users and Friday for XBLA users, Telltale released a special episode for The Walking Dead. Meant to act as a bridge between season 1 and the upcoming season 2, there is a departure from part of what people loved so much of the first season for. But, the new aspects of the game and its storytelling keeps the hook there for players for the next season.

The Long

The first thing players will note in The Walking Dead: 400 Days is the separation from the main characters in the first season. Where there is an appearance from some periphery characters, the majority of those seen in the game are new to both the game and the comics. There is also a group of six characters players take the role of (five characters with their own chapter and then one epilogue) as opposed to only playing for Lee in the previous title.

This is where things start to feel starkly different. Part of what was so addictive in the first season of The Walking Dead was following the relationship between Lee and Clementine. In 400 Days though, before you can get too invested in a single character, you move onto the next. The long term results of these actions also remain to be seen as to how these characters will play a role in the second season alongside those who made it through the first.

If you are a Call of Duty: Black Ops II player, you probably spent the better part of your day yesterday playing the new Vengeance maps that came out on XBox 360. If you’re a PlayStation 3 owner, let’s face it that you aren’t a real Black Ops II player to begin with. The XBox 360 players got to dig in to the four new multiplayer maps as well as the new Buried zombie map as well.

Instead of a standard fare trailer showing off the levels like the teaser videos have done already, the team at Treyarch worked on something a little different. In the launch trailer for the Buried zombie mode map, Treyarch paired up with Malukah who is best known for her Skyrim cover song (with over 10,000,000 YouTube hits) to create “Always Running”.

With a voice similar to that of Amy Lee from Evanessence, Malukah does a fantastic job capturing the desperation overcoming players during zombie mode. This combined with some fantastic in game close call footage gives a very different feel than a fast paced shoot ’em up that Call of Duty: Black Ops II often gives its players.

It is possible that Call of Duty: Ghosts may set the record for highest selling game as franchise tradition continues, especially with the game launching on more systems with the next gen coming out. Preorder numbers are already shooting through the roof with Call of Duty: Ghosts ranked first for games for the XBox One and third for the PlayStation 4 currently (since real console shooter players stick to the XBox platform).

In spite of that, Activision is announcing a preorder incentive for Call of Duty: Ghosts in the form of a bonus map called Free Fall which will dynamically change as the game progresses. Check out the full press release below as well as concept art as well. Call of Duty: Ghosts is due out this fall for the XBox One, XBox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PC and Wii U on November 5th.

Way back in 2009, we announced that former Diablo Project Lead David Brevik would be taking the reins of the Marvel MMO from Gazillion. Now, four years later after putting in some time for this edition of the Monday Freeview, it is quite easy for us to see where his influence came in. For those who haven’t been following it or seen the fantastic advertisements on the side of the Flickcast (cheap plug), Gazillion has been working on a Marvel based MMO for quite some time. Late to the game by comparison to City of Heroes, Champions Online and DC Universe Online, there was wonder as to how the Marvel MMO would stand out amongst the pack. These other games had pretty much done the best they could with an MMO RPG style game where players were able to create their own custom heroes and then play alongside iconic NPCs.

The answer from Gazillion was to switch up the formula. Not only does Marvel Heroes let players take on the roles of various Marvel icons, it completely changes the gameplay as well. Instead of the large, persistent world that MMO players are used it, the players of Marvel Heroes are treated to a series of instanced dungeon crawls much more akin to Diablo. Like we said, David Brevik made his presence known. What this ends up doing is creating a game that could almost be described as an introduction to the Diablo playstyle.